On the Amtrak from Boston to New York City

“How to Write the Great American Indian Novel" by Sherman Alexie (1996)

“On the Amtrak” examines the stories of history and the power in its telling. Contrary to its title, this poem does not give writing advice. It instead focuses on the harmful fictions of cultural stereotypes. It is another example of Alexie’s perspective, use of irony, and facility with narratives and counter-narratives.

“Dakota Homecoming" by Gwen Nell Westerman (2018)

Gwen Nell Westerman is a Dakota and Cherokee poet. In this poem she explores the colonization and commercialization of Native American lands and peoples. Both this poem and “On the Amtrak” use ironic distance between the indigenous speaker and the spoken words of a clueless representative of white America to underscore their sharp insights.

“An American Sunrise" by Joy Harjo (2017)

The speaker in this lyric poem by Harjo, a poet from the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, calls for justice from their oppressors. Alexie’s speaker thinks about what he may say in a future encounter. Written two decades after “On the Amtrak,” “An American Sunrise” is a vocalized and defiant cry of proud survival in the present of the poem: “We are still America. We / know the rumors of our demise. We spit them out” (Lines 13-14).

“Alabanza: In Praise of Local 100" by Martín Espada (2003)

Espada’s poem praises unsung laborers who lost their lives while on the job in a World Trade Center restaurant on 9/11. The immigrant restaurant and hotel workers are given a precedence that is all too often missing from mainstream sources. Both “Alabanza” and “On the Amtrak” use concrete detail to tell their stories and both push back against erasure. History, these poems remind us, are multi-faceted, complicated, and sometimes competing.